Immediantly after book 9
by Paint paint
Summary: Halt and Horace go to meet up with Will and see some unexpected, and dangerous company.


Halt and Horace were riding their horses at a steady trot. Halt has been really quite after his brother's death, thought Horace, wait Halt was usually quite, quieter then usual. He corrected. Suddenly a white robe group of men charged out of the bushes. One was slightly overweight with a war axe, a regular looking man with a javelin, and then there was a broad shouldered man as tall as Horace, dual wielding a Hunga Munga (real weapon), a weapon from Northern Arrida. It was a handle with a spike sticking out the top, a metal rod continued out handle which there was a long spike at the top and behind it, a 180 degree turned spike so it came behind the straight blade. Neither Halt nor Horace have ever seen this weapon. Neither of them saying a word they drew their weapons, Halt took out the ax man in a heartbeat with an arrow to the neck. The second man thrusted his javelin at Horace, but Horace caught it with his sword's crosspiece and flicked it out of his hand, and quickly jabbed his sword in between the man's ribs. The man slowly slid off Horace's sword and fell on the ground. The heavy built man came charging. Horace barely parried the weapon with his sword, leaving a large nick in it. Horace saw the best feat of hand-eye coordination he ever saw when the man turned around and deflected Halt's arrow away in mid air. The man jumped in Halt's direction. Halt pulled an arrow out of his quiver and put the broad head in front of the Hunga Munga. The broad head shattered and Halt flew back a couple of feet because of the impact.

"Why don't you fight someone your own size, oaf!" Horace yelled. Horace got just what he wanted when he ran in nostrils flaring. Got him mad, he'll be more prone to a fatal mistake. Horace thought with a snicker. The man came both weapons coming down in an over hand ark. Horace knew better then to parry it with his sword, so he lifted his shield and tilted it to a side. When the man brought his weapons down he felt the shield against his weapon. Expecting to fall straight down he was unprepared as the weapons recoiled to the side and his balance faltered. Quickly he rolled and got up with the tiniest scratch as Horace swung his sword from too far away, hoping that he would end the fight sooner. The man threw one Hunga Munga at Halt who had an arrow in position and had a clear shot of the man without having to worry about hitting Horace, although, the weapon hit his bow cracking it in half. He turned back to Horace to continue his fight with him. This all happened in the space of one and a half seconds. With only one Hunga Munga he was at a disadvantage. So he pulled out his waist dagger. He clumsily fought on with different weights in each hand. Horace could have ended it right, but after all of that Horace wanted to toy with him. He effortlessly parried his strokes with a playful look in his eyes. He continued this for a minute while Halt watched. He saw his playful strokes and got the message. He watched with a ghost of a smile on his face, and Halt rarely smiled. Horace decided it was enough and with one quick stroke Halt saw his helmet fly in the air. Then he realized his head was in it.

"How's your god going to help you now huh?" he muttered.

"Good job Horace." Said a voice directly behind him. He quickly turned around, scared out of his wits.

"You know Halt, you should save your stealth skills for enemies you know!" Horace said angrily.

"Practice never hurts." Halt said He didn't smile but Horace thought he heard the sarcastic humor in his voice, but he couldn't be sure if he really heard it.

"He probably didn't make you fight him because he didn't want to lose his best fighter." Halt said.

Before Horace could reply halt went over to his horse grabbed his supply box and started building himself a new bow. Maybe Halt loved his bow as much as his coffee. Horace thought, but he shrugged it away, Rangers and coffee is some some serious love he knew.

"They couldn't live without it." He said unknowingly out load.


End file.
